Governance, Grassroots, and Growth in the Environmental Justice Network

By Olivia Johnson, CRC Environmental Storytelling Intern

In the words of Climate Resilient Communities (CRC) founder Violet Saena, “the climate space is one designed for collaboration.” Each fall, the climate resilience community is abuzz with talk of global conferences like the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP30, or New York City’s annual climate week in September, where CRC’s Resilient Homes program was honored this year. These forums provide wonderful opportunities for leaders in the environmental sphere to gather, discuss, and reimagine the future of our planet. But in focusing on broad-scale efforts, such gatherings can inadvertently exclude the changemakers at the heart of the environmental movement: community leaders. CRC focuses not only on uplifting local trailblazers, but ensuring they’re connected to one another, seen through our Environmental Justice (EJ) Network.

The attendees of August's EJ Network meeting.

On a late August evening, six CRC staff and eight community leaders representing residents at the frontline of climate impacts in both San Mateo and Santa Clara County gathered in our organization’s office in East Palo Alto for a bi-monthly EJ Network meeting. The network warmly welcomed three new CBOs to its cohort: Belle Haven Action, Belle Haven Empowered, and Belle Haven Community Development Fund. These organizations lead and support a variety of different climate initiatives in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties—from supporting Belle Haven’s electrification project to working to distribute extreme heat kits. But despite differences in programmatic focus, they are united by a shared commitment to serve historically underserved communities. Complete with an EJ Network training module, governance and action plan, grant writing workshop, and community discussion, the event aimed to provide resources so members could advance their EJ staff capacity. Expanding capacity can feel like a formidable task, but in sharing knowledge and lived experiences, the EJ Network has become a space where organizations can not only encourage, but empower one another to create change. 

In the spirit of collaboration, the event began with a share-out from network partners, introducing their organizations and discussing project updates. Shortly afterwards, CRC’s Director of Outreach and Education, Kamille Lang, began the EJ Network training module: programming designed to review the goals and logistics of the coalition. The EJ Network is the brainchild of founder and executive director Violet Saena, who observed that several local organizations were seeking guidance from CRC on how to navigate their role at the intersection of the social justice work that brought them to serve this community and the impending need to navigate the climate vulnerability landscape in pursuit of safer, healthier communities. Seeing this demand, Saena sought to formalize a space where community leaders could gather and learn tangible steps to enter environmental justice spaces. Though the network began under Saena’s mentorship, Lang sees now that the group knows “who’s in the room and what they want out of this space,” embodying the ever-growing autonomy and knowledge of the network.

Discussing the goals and logistics of the EJ Network.

As the alliance has grown, CRC has standardized processes for organizations joining and remaining in the network; this meeting introduced the Environmental Leadership Indicator (ELI) (an innovative adjustment of the Key Performance Indicators model utilized in the traditional business model for metric tracking and success) by way of  forms to be filled out after each annual agreement, along with an Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for organizations to sign after joining the network. These processes aren’t just of CRC’s volition; they’re born from a partner’s desire to “streamline the process for other EJ organizations to get grant funding.” Some associations don’t necessarily center on environmental justice work—partners like El Concilio of San Mateo County focus on health equity, while the Sunnyvale Christian Congregational Church of American Samoa, who serves the Pacific Islander population within the region, provides cultural education to youth. However, as one member noted, climate change connects to all public service spheres, and you sometimes “just have to get creative with how it looks.”

A novel feature of this meeting was the inclusion of a governance and action plan, spearheaded by CRC Resilient Leadership intern Austin Shaw. A current Stanford University student raised in Los Angeles, Shaw’s work with CRC this summer allowed him to research Bay Area environmental policy and its impact on local communities, showing him that “CBOs may not work directly with environmental justice, so when they’re applying for EJ grants, they need the history and context of the EJ world.” In reviewing the EJ political landscape at the meeting, Shaw’s top-down approach first reviewed the history of the environmental justice movement, dating back to the Warren County protests of the late 1970s, then delved into the modern context, which included the benefits and drawbacks of California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) before focusing on San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties. As of 2016, California’s SB1000 began mandating local governments to identify disadvantaged communities in their jurisdictions and address EJ in their general plans. As such, the county benefits from California’s Environmental Justice Grants that provide funding to CBOs addressing environmental disparities. 

An unexpected focus of the meeting was discussion about not only the government’s role in supporting CBOs, but the roles of neighboring academic institutions like Stanford University, UC Berkeley, and others who have previously engaged CBOs for partnership in outreach and survey distribution. Though members expressed frustration with the past practices of such institutions—discussing how they often come into East Palo Alto to conduct research without sharing findings with residents, thus commodifying the data—the network proved overwhelmingly in favor of inviting Santa Clara University and Stanford University partners to the next meeting, potentially even to join the EJ Network. In doing so, they demonstrated two of the core values the network prides itself on: openness and a desire for collaboration.

Reviewing the meeting's materials together.

The meeting concluded with a grant writing workshop and discussion, two practices that provide lasting benefits to members. CRC consistently nominates partnering CBOs for grants; we research the awards and submit nomination packages illustrating why an EJ network member would be a good fit for a grant. Now, we’re working to provide grant writing templates so organizations within the network can independently apply. This workshop focused on the Climate Ride Grant, a $5,000 environmental justice grant all network members had been nominated for. Lang and Shaw encouraged attendees to brainstorm responses to the prompts with one another, fueling connection and conversation over different approaches to grant writing and budgeting. After concluding with an overview of six other grants open for application, Lang opened the conversation up to the collective. Lang’s proclamation that “we can’t do it alone” proved a war cry for members, who echoed the importance of working together to “create tangible goods” so “our community is comfortable in their own neighborhood.” Amid shifting federal approaches to climate initiatives, the EJ Network’s place in our local political landscape grows ever more important. With a newfound understanding of environmental policy, along with skills in grant writing, the network has an arsenal of tools that allow them to ambitiously pursue climate justice: a journey they’ll embark on alongside one another. If you have interest in joining this incredible network, we are always recruiting new organizations and would love to work and grow with you.